Pope v. Craft

1 Tenn. App. 356, 1925 Tenn. App. LEXIS 55
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJuly 29, 1925
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 1 Tenn. App. 356 (Pope v. Craft) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pope v. Craft, 1 Tenn. App. 356, 1925 Tenn. App. LEXIS 55 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1925).

Opinion

CLARK, J.

The complainant, J. H. Pope, purchased a house and lot, known in the record as the “Home Place,” from Colyar Reese, and located at thfe corner of Union Avenue and Bellevue in Memphis, Tennessee. For said property he agreed to pay $46,000. He paid $10,000 cash and assumed the payment of three notes, each in the sum of $11,666.66, one of which notes was due February 18, 1921, one February 18, 1922 and the other February 18, '1923. Said notes were executed by Colyar Reese and were secured by a deed of trust on said property made to H. J. Frame and W. D. Kyser, trustees. The North Memphis Savings Bank purchased and became the owner of said notes. Thereafter, said North Memphis Savings Bank consolidated with or sold all of its assets to the Union & Planters Bank & Trust Company.

Said notes were not paid when they became due. Said house and lot, the home place, was advertised and sold by W. D. Kyser, one of the trustees. The Union & Planters Bank and Trust Company became the purchaser at the price of $20,000. Thereafter said bank sold, or undertook to sell, said property to the Methodist Hospital and made and delivered a deed to it.

The bill in this case was filed by J. H. Pope, as complainant, against Henry Craft, Trustee, North Memphis Savings Bank, Union & Planters Bank & Trust Co., John T. Walsh, President, ^ and also against the Methodist Hospital, as defendants. Complainant in his bill attacked and sought to have set aside various transactions had by him with one or all of the defendants, but the only matter involved on this appeal is that which pertains to the home place.

Complainant charged that the North Memphis Savings Bank had agreed to carry said Colvar Reese notes for him (complainant) for several years longer than it did carry them, and not to sell said home place until complainant had had further and additional *358 opportunity to pay for same. He also charged that said home place was worth $75,000, that he was offered $60,000 for it by the said Methodist Hospital before said deed of trust was foreclosed, that he asked the hospital $75,000 for it and would have been able to sell said place for last-mentioned amount had not said deed of trust been foreclosed, that said North Memphis Savings Bank or its successor, the Union & Planters Bank & Trust Company, colluded with the Methodist Hospital and agreed to have said deed of trust foreclosed; to buy said property for $20,000, and to let the hospital have it for $50,000, being $10,000 less than . said hospital had offered for it, and that said Union & Planters Bank carried out and performed its said collusive agreement.

Complainant further charges that said home place was not advertised as by said deed of trust required, in that the length of the advertisement actually made was only twenty days, while the requirement was that said property should be advertised for a period of not less than twenty-one days; also that-the requirement of. the deed of trust was that said property be advertised in a newspaper, but the purported advertisement was inserted in “The Daily News,” and that said Daily News was not and is not a newspaper, as that term was and is used in said deed of trust. Complainant further charged that, since the Union & Planters Bank & Trust Co., had conveyed the property to the Methodist Hospital, it was not entitled to maintain suit in its name (Union & Planters Bank & Trust Co.) to recover possession of the property.

The Methodist Hospital did not answer, and an order pro eonfesso was taken against it. The other defendants answered. The Union & Planters Bank denied in its answer .that complainant was entitled to any of the relief sought with reference to the home place, denied all of the material charges contained in the original and amended bill, and filed its answer as a cross-bill, charging that it had purchased said property at the trustee’s sale, that it had paid for same by crediting the amount bid by it on the indebtedness owing to it by complainant, that the trustee had executed and delivered to it a deed, in proper form, conveying said property to it, that said deed had been duly recorded, that complainant was still in the possession of the property, but that cross-complainant was entitled to the possession of it, and the chancellor was asked to so decree.

- Proof was taken, the case was tried before chancellor Heiskell and he was of opinion and decreed that complainant was not entitled to any of the relief sought with reference to said home place, and with reference to it complainant’s bill was dismissed; but that said cross-complainant was entitled to the relief sought with reference to said home place in its cross-bill, and it was so decreed.

*359 From so much of the decree as held that the Union & Planters Bank & Trust Company had, by its purchase at the trustees sale and the deed of the trustee, acquired a valid title to said home place and was entitled to maintain its suit to recover possession of it, and as decreed a writ of possession to said cross-complainant, the original complainant, J. IT. Pope, perfected an appeal to this court, and has filed the following assignments of error:

I.

“The court erred in decreeing - that the sale of this property by W. D. Kyser, trustee, on December 3, 1923, was a valid sale, and passed title to said property to the Union & Plantérs Bank & Trust Company.

“First: Because the notice of sale of said property was not published for the length of time required by the terms of the deed of trust before the sale;

“Second: Because “The Daily News” in which said notice of sale was published was not a “Newspaper” in the sense required by law, and within the meaning of said trust deed, because, as the proof shows, said Daily News was not a paper of general circulation; but was of a very limited circulation, and devoted to publication of special matters -which do not.interest the general public; that it was a paper of class circulation and not a proper medium for giving notice to the general public.

“Third: Because the sale of this property by the trustee was brought about by collusion between the Union & Planters Bank & Trust Co., and a representative of the Methodist Hospital, in order that the said hospital might acquire the title to said property at a less price than it could have been bought directly .from the owner.

II.

“The court erred in' holding and decreeing that the Union & Planters Bank & Trust Co., was entitled to maintain suit in its own name to recover possession of this property, because the record shows that, before the bringing-of its suit by its cross-bill, it had conveyed all its right, title and interest in said property to the Methodist Hospital. ’ ’

We will dispose of these assignments in the order in which they are stated. Was the notice of sale of said property published for the length of time required by the terms of the deed of trust ?

The original deed of trust is in the record, and will be found between pages .49 and 50 thereof. The provision therein with reference to the advertisement of said property is as follows:

*360

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114 S.W.2d 57 (Court of Appeals of Tennessee, 1937)

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Bluebook (online)
1 Tenn. App. 356, 1925 Tenn. App. LEXIS 55, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pope-v-craft-tennctapp-1925.